This invention relates to a securing frame for a USB connector, a USB distributor (USB hub) having such a securing frame and a connector module designed for use with such a USB connector.
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus system for connecting a computer to external devices. Devices or memory media such as USB memory sticks equipped with USB connectors can be connected to one another during ongoing operation (Hot Swapping) and connected devices and their properties automatically recognised.
USB is suitable for many devices such as mass storage (such as hard drives, diskettes, DVD drives, memory sticks), printers, scanners, webcams, mice, keyboards, loudspeakers, dongles, graphics cards, monitors, etc. A USB connector can also take over the power supply for devices having a low power consumption, such as mice, for example.
As a result of this versatility and the high data transmission rate that can be achieved, USB connectors are therefore widely used for both personal and industrial PCs these days.
However, the mechanical strength of the connection established by a USB connector, i.e. the connection of a USB plug to a USB socket, is often not very high. Especially in the industrial sector where changes are frequently made to the connections of a PC, the problem that therefore regularly occurs in practice is that a USB connection is unintentionally disconnected, for example because a user accidentally trips on a cable and thus pulls a USB plug out of its allocated USB socket on a housing of an electronic device.
The objective of this invention, therefore, is to propose a device by means of which a USB housing connector provided on a housing of an electronic device can largely be secured to prevent a USB complementary connector that is to be connected from being unintentionally pulled out.